The Dearest Place on Earth --Part 3:W hat is a M em ber?

M att Chandler --June23,2013

[Audio]

The church isnotan institution forperfectpeople. Itis a sanctuary forsinners saved by grace,a nursery for
God's sweetchildren to be nurtured and grow strong. Itis the fold forChrist'ssheep,the hom e forChrist's
fam ily. The church is the dearestplace on earth.

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Ifyou have yourBibles,why don'tyou go ahead and grab them . Ilove Acts2,butwe're going to be in
Hebrews 13. Ifyou have yourBible,go ahead and turn there orgetthere on yourdevice. Ifyou don'thave a
Bible with you,there should be a hardback black one som ewhere around you. You can follow us with that
Bible. Ifyou don'town one,that'sourgiftto you.

W e're in week three now ofa serieson the church called The DearestPlace. Ihave already,in the firsttwo
weeks,tried to dism antle the argum ents againstcalling a series on the church The DearestPlace. Iwon't
go into allofthatagain,butIwillsay whatwe've done so faris we have talked aboutwhatthe church is.
W hatwe saw outofEphesians2 is thatthe church isa group ofm en and wom en. The church isa people;
it'snota place. Places aren'tsacred. People are sacred in Christianity. It's the people who are the church,
nota place.

Istressed itby sim ply going,"You can head to Jerusalem ,butyou'llfind the presence ofGod no m ore
powerfulthere than you'llfind itam ong usas hispeople. W e are the dwelling place ofGod. God dwells
am ong hispeople. The church isa people pulled from nearand far. God graciously saved som e ofus in
Sunday school,and he graciously saved som e ofus in addiction to drugs and alcoholand throwing
ourselvesaway. In a wake ofdestruction,he cam e and rescued us,and he m ade a people thatworksitself
outin a localcongregation.
That localcongregation isem powered by the Holy Spirit, inform ed by the W ord ofGod, and is held
togetherby JesusChrist, the cornerstone.W hat Iunpacked then is that that holding togetheractually is
ourshared experience ofgrace.W ithout that shared experience ofgrace, we don't have a really good shot
at walking with one anotherin such a way that the m anifold wisdom ofGod isseen and m arveled at and
that we are salt and light to the world around us.

W hat Im ean by that is when you experience grace, you're able to extend grace.Ifgrace isjust an idea, but
God hasn't opened yourheart to experience, then you rally around som ething else, and it'sjust not going
to hold us together.Ifyou want to talk justice issues, let m e lay thisbefore you.Ibelieve the Bible would
com m and us to fight injustice.Ibelieve it'son the believerin Jesus Christ to take a stand against any and
allkindsofinjustices, but it'snot what holds us together, because based on ourbackgrounds, our
upbringing, and even at tim esourethnicity, we willview different justices and injustices differently.

Really, you could attack injustice together, but because ofbackgrounds, see it very differently.That would
lead to conflict and a going ofthe separate ways.It'snot what holds us together;grace iswhat holds us
together.The fact is that allofushave been told by God, "You're forgiven."That's what holds us together.
It'swhat enablesm e to be patient with you, you to be patient with m e, m e to be gracious toward you, you
to be gracioustoward m e.

It allhas to do with the fact that we've experienced that.Having experienced it, we're now able to extend it,
because we know great m ercy hasbeen shown to us, so we becom e m ore and m ore able to show great
m ercy to others.Thisis what the church is.It willalways, at any given tim e, have im m ature people and
m ature people in it, and God and God alone can m ake that a house.

Praise God forthat.Praise God that we alwayslook a bit hypocriticalto those outside ofus.Can you
im agine, ifyou're not a believer, the weight that would be put on any and allofusifeveryone else here was
perfect? W ould you feelwelcom ed here at all? I'm the pastorofthisjoint.Iwould not feelwelcom ed here.
Iwould stand up here like, "How am Isupposed to tellthese people… ?"Iwouldn't feellike Icould.
Because Iknow we're not and we're allundergrace, Ican boldly point us to grace.

Thisisthe good newsofthe gospelofJesusChrist.W e walked through that, being what the church is,
em powered by the Holy Spirit, inform ed by the W ord ofGod, and held togetherby the grace ofJesus
Christ, Christ the cornerstone.Last week, we talked about the nature ofGod'srelationship with his church,
the bride.The illustration the Bible givesusis m arriage.M arriage iscovenantal;it's not contractual.
Contracts and covenantsaren't the sam e.
Contracts rally around goods and services, and covenant is you giving yourself to something. You have to
get this. If you have already forgotten or weren't here from last week, this becomes imperative to
everything we'll discuss in this series. God's relationship with us is not contractual. It's not, "Here's a list of
rules, but if you break those rules, I'm voiding the contract." That's not God's relationship with his church.
God's relationship with his church is, "I'm going to give you me, and I'm enough regardless of what you're
bringing to the table."

That's spectacular. That's why we love vows at weddings, because they're not contractual. W e would hate
them if they were contractual. It would suck all the romance out of it. It doesn't matter if you had the
strings and the white gown and everybody dressed up. You would straight up derail, jack up a wedding if it
came time for the vows and you began to use contractual language. "I'll bring home money if you'll clean
the kitchen." "O kay. W ell, I'll clean the kitchen… " Right? N obody goes, "O h, gosh. I'm so glad I'm here."
You would hate that.

Isaid last week, "I'd just go get my gift out of the pile and take it. I'm not letting you sell it off during the
divorce. I'm just going to get my money back. I'll take that blender home." W e talked about that God's love
toward us is covenantal. He gives us himself. O ur response is obedience and giving ourselves back to the
Lord, and he even empowers and enables that obedience. He fulfills the obligations of both sides of the
covenant. That's unreal.

From there, we talked about then if God's relationship with his church is covenantal, what is our
relationship to one another? W e said it has to be covenantal. Iused the illustration of my wife and Ibefore
we were married. W e got in the same fight once every six to eight weeks. It was the identical fight. It was
always around some other thing, but at its heart, it was the same fight. Iasked one of my mentors, "David, I
feel like I'm supposed to marry this woman, but here's the deal. About every eight weeks, we get in the
same fight. I'm just kind of looking out and going, 'O kay, are we just going to be having this fight for the
rest of our lives?'"

He looked me dead in my face and said, "You're going to fight with someone for the rest of your life. Do
you want it to be Lauren? If you want to fight with Lauren for the rest of your life, then marry her. If you
don't want to fight with Lauren for the rest of your life, then find who you are going to fight with for the rest
of your life, but you're going to fight with someone." It was probably one of the first times in my life Ihad
two emotions simultaneously happen that were at odds with one another.

O ne of them, Iwas crushed. Another is Iwas really excited. O ne, Iwas like, "O h no," and then, "O h yeah!"
that literally happened. The same emotions all mixed in, and to this day, I've been fighting with Lauren.
W e're still at it probably every 10 to 12 weeks now, but we fight much fairer than we did back then and have
a better understanding of where one another are coming from. What I said is, "This is covenant love, and
this is how our relationship should be with one another."

We walked through the 59 "one anothers." We're going to do it again today. Love one another. Serve one
another. Greet one another. Rebuke one another. Correct one another. Build one another up. O utdo one
another in honor. This is covenant language;it's not contractual. It's not, "If you don't do this, I'm going to
leave." It's, "I'm going to become this type of person for you." That's the nature of the covenant our God
has with us and that we share with one another.

I want to now take the next couple of weeks and talk about how the church is structured. Here's what I
need you to do. Don't think, "O kay, he set up the relational side. N ow he's getting into the structural side,
because God doesn't set up structures sans relationship." Are you tracking that? It is important for you to
know. What we're going to do now is we're going to move to how the church is ordered, because God has
put definite structures and boundaries in place for your good.

O ur culture doesn't like that, but what we call people in authority who have responsibility, who don't set
boundaries and structures, they are people who neglect who they're over, and our God is not negligent. He
is not indifferent toward you. He is not indifferent toward me;he is passionate about me through the blood
of Christ and in that love has built structures so that I might flourish and be protected, and that I might
mature and grow in wisdom and knowledge of who he is. We're going to talk about those structures this
week and next.

I wish I could take this and build out a massive series on just basically the structures of the church. I don't
have that kind of time, so we're going to do in two weeks just two topics. We're going to cover membership
this week, and we're going to cover leadership, primarily elders, next week. That's how we're going to do it.
N ow I said the first week that we started this series that I have, you have, we have no authority other than
the Word of God and the authority given by the Word of God. Does that make sense to you?

The Word of God is authoritative, but the Word of God also gives authority to institutions, places, and
people that must also be submitted to, not as it is the Word of God, but because the Word of God has
asked you to submit to that. Let me give you an illustration. When we were back at the Highland Village
Campus, just one campus, we didn't have the multi-site model going on at that point. We were running six
services, turning away from almost all six of them.

It was one of those weekends where we were just jammed, turning away at the parking lot. If you're here
today, I would love to meet you. In my head, I love you. I just want to meet you. A brother came in, and
could not get in. The greeters are like, "Sorry, it's full." O ur staff had already left and given up their seats
for other people com ing in.They were all jam m ed up in the sound booth.W e were already breaking the
law.If they would have counted heads, we would have probably gotten in trouble, speaking of authority
issues.

In the end, this brother had no fram ework for being turned away from a church 10 m inutes before the
scheduled start tim e.He had no fram ework for that, so he just started getting heated.O ne of our security
guys (Idon't want to out him , but hisnam e is Andy, walked over to this m an and just said, "Is there a
problem ?"He grabbed his Bible and waslike, "You show m e in thisbook where it saysyou can turn m e
away."Then he chucked his Bible across the foyer.

Andy, who iscarrying a weapon, just said, "W ell, sir, you have the Good Book, and you have the city book.
The Good Book doesn't have anything to say, but the city book says we're full."First of all, kudos to Andy.I
would have probably tased him .That's probably how Iwould have gone out."Huh? How about now? You
didn't see that one com ing to church."That probably would have happened.Ihave a really dark heart, all
right.I'm being grown.Andy just kind of lays it out.W hat he said was true.

The W ord of God, Rom ans 13, saysthat authorities have been set up, governm ental authorities have been
set up for our good, so if you're anti-boundary, Iwould love to take you to a couple of countries around the
world and see how m uch you start to cling and love boundaries.I'd like to take you to a couple of places
globally and let you rail against structuresand authorities.Right? N o, boundaries are given for our good.
The W ord of God is authoritative, but also givesauthority to certain institutions, organizations, and people.

Since thisistrue, if we're going to talk about m em bership, here's what we have to ask.Ischurch
m em bership biblical? If the only authority we have isthe W ord of God and the authority the W ord of God
gives, then we have to go to the W ord of God or to whom has the authority from the W ord of God in order
to answer thisquestion.Luckily, we don't have to go to the authority he assigns;he handlesit him self.

There isnot an explicit text in the Bible that says, "You m ust join a church."That verse does not exist.That
would be awesom e, but it doesn't exist.N ow, there isenough biblical com m anding occurring in the
Scriptures that Ibelieve it leavesno doubt that obedience to God and obedience to the W ord of God
dem ands, not suggests, but dem ands that you join a local congregation in a way that's m uch m ore robust
than your attendance on the weekend.

Let m e show you.W e're in Hebrews 13.W e're going to pick it up in verse 17.It'sjust going to start with a
very difficult word.M y first argum ent for church m em bership or, Ibelieve, the Bible'sfirst argum ent for
church m em bership is actually how the church is to be structured.Let'slook at verse 17.W hat'sthe first
word? "O bey… " You can do better than that.W hat's the firstword? "O bey… " W e're going to talk about
this,because thisis crazy.I'm nervous.I'm starting to sweat,allright.This isnotan easy topic.

Let's do it.Like Isaid,I'm justgoing to kind ofstand on this.Ifyou have a problem ,it'snotwith m e."O bey
your leaders and subm itto them ,for they are keeping watch over your souls,as those who willhave
to give an account.Letthem do this with joy and notwith groaning,for thatwould be ofno
advantage to you." This sets up an interaction ofrelationalstructure thatm ostofus don'tcare for.Here's
whatitis.Iwantto justkind offiletthe thing open here.

W hen we join churches,we're notthinking,"I'm going to subm itto the group ofleaders thatare over and
in thischurch." W e don'tthink that.W e think,"Ilike this preaching.Ilike this m usic.Thisplace is kind of
cool.Ilove how they do this.Aren'tthese seats com fortable? Ilike how m any optionsand service tim es we
have.Their children'sprogram isgreat." That's the kind ofstuffwe're thinking about,buthere's whatthe
Bible justsaid.There are leadersin the church you are to subm itto.

Let's chat.W e're talking m em bership here and whether or notit's biblical.W hatleaders? There are a lotof
Christian leadersoutthere,aren'tthere? Probably the easiestexam ple,the easiesttargetfor m e isjustto
kind oftalk aboutW estboro.There are a bunch ofleadersand eldersatthatchurch.Do you have to subm it
to them ? Are we heading outto picketsom e funerals? The Bible isclear."O bey.Subm it." Butto whom ?

Then,I'lltellyou for m e,as an elder… W e'llgetinto our kind ofstructure here a little bithere and then a
lotm ore nextweek.As an elder,do you know whatkind ofcrushing weightthisis? You think you're like,
"O h,Idon'tthink Ireally like to subm it." W ell,Idon'tknow thatIwantto be held accountable for 9,000
people.Do you wantto talk aboutsweating m yselfto sleep som etim es,asking God to be m erciful,asking
him to give m e wisdom ,asking our team for boldness,for insightinto the W ord ofGod,and courage to do
whatwe would have us do concerning your souls?

You don'tthink thisisa crushing weighton allthose who would take seriously shepherding the people of
God? W ho am Ito lead? W hen Isay,"I," in our tim e together today,I'm talking aboutwe,the eldersofThe
Village Church.W ho are we to lead? Are we responsible for allthe Christiansoutthere? Am Iresponsible
for everyone? N o,Idon'tbelieve so.N ow,am Ito be brotherly to allbelieversin Christ? Absolutely.Am I
to engage wherever Ican? Absolutely,butifthere are leaders who m em bers are to subm itto and obey…

Golly!Ialm ostjustprefer,alm ostjusttake seriously,"Gosh,thatwould justbe so m uch better." Butno.

"O bey… subm itto… " then Igetto like,"O h,gosh.Idon'tknow how they're going to receive that.Then I
read the nextline,and I'm like,"Sheesh,Ihave to stand in frontofGod and give an account." N ow,will
grace cover that? Absolutely,butdoesitchange thatGod isgoing to hold m e and the restofour elders
ultimately responsible for how we shepherded you as under shepherds? No. Will I hear, "Well done, my
good and faithful servant"? I believe I will.

God has entrusted to me and to the elders of this church what is extremely precious to him, what reveals
his manifold wisdom. Sometimes I'm like, "M an, I'd rather not have that responsibility. Can't I just teach?
I'm good at preaching. Can I just preach? Let some other brothers… Can I just not be an elder here? Can I
just kind of be the preacher/teacher guy and not sit under this? Preaching and teaching is easy compared
to this.

The first argument I would make for membership is that God says there is leadership you must obey and
submit to, and that for those of us who are leaders, there is a specific people we are called to lead in such a
way that we will be held accountable for how we went about leading them, shepherding them,
encouraging them, spurring them on toward love and good deeds.

The first argument from the Bible is actually a structural one. Do you see how it's still relational? You obey
and submit, but leaders are to love and shepherd those who are obeying and submitting. It's not heavy-
handed. It's not controlling. It's understanding that I have to give an account to Dad for how I took care of
his bride. I'll be straight with you.

If we ever had a babysitter, and we kind of laid out, "We want the kids in bed at 8:30. Please don't give
them a lot of sugar. If you could just clean up a little bit the mess the kids make before we get home, that
would be awesome." If I got home, and the television was gone, and a kid was missing, and there was icing
all over the ground, and it was evident that things were… I would have a major problem there, because I
would have trusted someone with something that is most precious to me.

That's how I feel being your pastor. God has handed me this thing he loves so much that blood was spilt.
The Garden of Gethsemane, sweat drops of blood, agony, screams as nails were driven through his hands
and his feet, being mocked, absorbing all of that wrath was for you, so you might be born, so you might be
made spiritually alive. God, seeing it good and right in his own sight, handed you over to the elders of this
church to care for, to mature, to nourish, and encourage on toward maturity.

That's serious, serious stuff, and it means I better be ferociously committed to you, and it means you had
better trust us well, and honestly that we earn that trust. I told you in the message last week, if elders
refuse to do their job, the Bible gives you clear grounds on how to confront them and how to press them
and how ultimately, if they get outside the bounds of the gospel, to move on and find a church that
robustly preaches the gospel and will love you, shepherd you, and care for you well.
The second text is 1 Corinthians 5. There is an argument for how the church is structured, and Iwould say
along with that structure, there is an argument for how church discipline plays out. Ijust want to warn you
that this is a difficult text, but I'm going to try to explain it in a way that would be helpful. W e're going to
pick it up in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 5.

"It is actually reported that there is sexualimmorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated
even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant!O ught you not rather to
mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
you."" Let's talk about what is happening
here. You have a son in a sexualrelationship with more than likely a stepmother, not his birth mother, but
more than likely his stepmother. The church has rejoiced in this, because isn't God's grace grand that
God's grace would cover such debauchery?

Paulsays, "Are you serious? You should mourn. Are you this arrogant? You should mourn this!" I've said
this to you before. God does not make sin safe. Grace doesn't make sin safe. Can you be forgiven?
Absolutely. Can you be restored? Absolutely. Is there collateraldamage to rebellion? Almost always. In
this situation, you see people rejoicing in something they shouldn't be rejoicing in. They should rather be
mourning. W e'lltalk more about that here in a second. Let's keep going. Verse 3:

"For though absent in body, Iam present in spirit;and as if present, Ihave already pronounced
judgment on the one who did such a thing. W hen you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus
and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for
the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord."
Lord."

Again, Ineed to stop here. Iwant you to see, like we covered last week in M atthew 18, when it comes to
matters of church discipline, and when it comes to matters of removing someone from fellowship, this text
is far more aggressive than M atthew 18. W hat we looked at last week is that we treat them as Gentiles and
tax-collectors, as in allowing them to sit and allowing them to be a part of body life. They just can't
participate in the Table, and we are to treat them as though they are not believers.

This is, "Get this brother out. He is not welcome." W hat Iwant to point to here is both in the M atthew 18
passage and in this passage, the goaland the hope is always restoration. The desire is that by turning this
brother over for the destruction of his flesh by the Devilthat he might repent and be saved on the day of
the Lord. Ithink maybe ways this willmake better sense to you…

If you didn't know (Ithink almost allof us know), Ihad a brain tumor taken out of my head almost four
years ago now. That was awful. I'm just going to throw that out. It was just awful. There was no realpart of it
that Ithought, "This willbe great as enabling me to minister in the future." The surgery lasted close to
eight hours. I woke up lacking certain cognitive skills and a lot of weakness on my left side. I had to do
rehab. I found out in a couple of weeks that I was probably going to be dead in a couple of years.

The good news was,before I die,they were going to poison me quite a bit,and then I would get to die
poisoned. In the middle of that,they took a saw. (If you're sensitive,I apologize for this.) They cut open my
skull,and then he took a scalpel,and he cut out a piece of my brain. He put my skull back on,flapped that
thing up,and sewed it instead of stapling it,because he knew I was on stage. I still think that's kind of
funny. He was like,"O h,I don't want to staple his head. People will think that's grotesque,so let me just
suture it." Like that's better. "Hey… " You know.

In the end here,what he did,as awful as it was… look at me… saved my life. God used it to save my life. In
the same way,church discipline often carries this function. "Let me wound you so you might live." I
pressed real hard last week on the phrase,"that you might win your brother." This week,I want to point you
to this phrase,"that he might be saved in the day of the Lord." This isn't an arrogant move. This isn't an
aggressive move. This is a slow move. This is a compassionate move,and it's one,according to the apostle,
that should be made with mourning,with tears,with gut-wrought,with just a desire that it could go any
other way but this.

"For the sake of your soul,brother,for the sake of your soul,you're not welcome." There are some caveats
here we have to really look at,so you know this isn't what we're talking about in M atthew 18. This is
something far more serious and,in fact,something I believe we've only done twice in my 10 years here.
M atthew 18,really hundreds of times. The good news is most of those stop after the first or second
meeting. Some of them make their way all the way up,and people have to be removed from membership,
but most…

M atthew 18 is perpetually happening here if we're a healthy body. If we love one another well,M atthew 18
will be happening weekly. You're just not going to get to the back parts of 18. This is something altogether
different,and I want you to look at what he says here in verse 6.

"Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little lleaven
eaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse
out the old leaven that you may be a new lump,as you really are unleavened. For
For Christ,our
Passover
Passov er lamb,has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival,not with the old leaven,
the leaven of malice and evil,but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
truth."

Let's keep reading. " I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people…
people… " N ow
don't go,"I'm out." Don't do it. Let's keep reading. "… not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this
world,or the greedy and swindlers,or idolaters,since then you would need to go out of the world.
But now Iam writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the nam e ofbrotherifhe is guilty
ofsexualim m orality orgreed,oris an idolater,reviler,drunkard,orswindler----- not even to eat with
such a one.Forwhat have Ito do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you
are to judge? God judges those outside.'Purge the evilperson from am ong you.'"

N ow,again,this creates som e m ind space we don't have a lot ofcategories for,so let m e kind ofshape it
foryou.The picture here is not ofa repentant brotherstruggling.That's not the picture.The picture we
have is the picture ofa brotherwho is actively sleeping with his stepm otherand rejoicing as though God's
grace allows him to do that and is asking others to celebrate God's grace in light ofhis debauchery.Paul
said,"N o,no,no,no,no.That kind ofwickedness willwork its way through the entire church,and the
holiness ofm y people willcom e into question.Purge that brotherfrom yourm idst."

As harsh as allthis sounds,you know this to be true.W hen you're around people who are serious about the
things ofGod,serious about the W ord ofGod,serious about prayer,serious about evangelism ,just love
the Lord,don't you feelyourselfrise a little bit,like you want that? You're encouraged in the Lord.You feel
confident in the Lord.You're growing bold in yourability to know the W ord ofGod and apply the W ord of
God and herald the good news ofthe gospelto those around you.

In the sam e way,ifyou are with brothers and sisters who are som ewhat asham ed,som ewhat m eek,far
m ore worldly,a bit m ore im m ature,is not the tem ptation m aybe not to sellout but to be hesitant about
being m ore m ature? You don't want to be seen as that guy who goes,"M aybe we should pray about that,"
and have eyes roll."W ellthat rem inds m e ofwhat Iread in the Scriptures." You just don't want to be seen
as that.Yeah,we're alltem pted to do that.

W here you have a brotherorsisterwho is a part ofthe covenant com m unity offaith who is celebrating their
sin and encouraging the body to celebrate theirsin,then the role is not just,"You're welcom e in our
gathering,but you can't participate in the Lord's Supper,and we're going to treat you as a Gentile and tax-
collector,i.e.an unbeliever." It's actually,"You're not welcom e here.Ifwe find out you're going
som ewhere else,we're probably going to let them know also."

There are two tim es that has happened in m y 10 years here.That's it.Actually,I'm gratefulto the Lord for
that.The first one was… I'lljust tellyou this scenario.The first was a m an who was preying on ouryoung
wom en.He was identifying and finding oursingle wom en who had what Iwould call(hopefully Idon't get
m yselfin trouble here)som e self-esteem issues,were looking and needy form ale attention.He was m ore
than glad to be that m ale attention.
It really creeped out som e ofour wom en to where they cam e and com plained to us, so we… I m ean, we
take that junk seriously.W e pulled thisbrother aside and kind ofm ade a list of, "Here are our expectations
ofyou in thisplace.Ifyou're going to be in thisplace, here's what we're going to ask ofyou." Then he kind
ofbroached that, so we sat him down again.W e tightened it up."W e, as the elders, have been given the
authority from the Bible." I don't have a verse that says, "Ifsom e old pervert predator ishanging out in
your church, throw him out." W hat I do have is the W ord ofGod giving m e authority (and by m e I m ean the
elders)to take care ofthe flock ofGod.

W e sat him down and said, "Thisisthe service you can com e to.N o other service, and you don't call or talk
to any ofour wom en before you talk to usfirst." He broke it again, and he'sgone.Thisisone ofthe
exam ples.Another exam ple iskind ofalong those sam e lines.W e just had an abusive dude.W e're just not
going to have an unrepentant m an beating hiswife in our church.It'sjust not going to happen.These are
the only two instancesI can give you where a m an was celebrating hissin and asking all ofus to celebrate
hissin with him .

At that point, the role isn't, "Keep com ing." Surely you know this.Right? Even ifyou're an unbeliever, this
should m ake sense to you.W ould you let som eone you knew, had displayed every sign, every action of
hurting those who are under your care, your wife, your children, your fam ily m em bers, would you
knowingly say, "You know what.Just keep com ing and spending the night"? N o, you wouldn't.Ifyou
would, you're a fool.

In the sam e way, one ofthe weights, one ofthe m ajor weights that falls on us as eldersis thisalso.W e
have to m ake these kinds ofcalls.Ifyou knew how m uch ofour week is spent on thisand people in
different parts ofthisprocess, you'd pray for usa lot m ore than you do.I can tell you that.Here's m y
question on the question ofm em bership.How can there be an out ifthere'snot an in? Ifthere is no in, how
can there be an out? Are you with m e? How do you rem ove a brother and tell him he'snot welcom e ifthere
isno place he would be welcom ed?

I would argue that the Bible arguesfor church m em bership based on her structure and based on how God
hasdecided to protect his people.W ith that said, where the Bible doesn't answer all ofour questions that I
want to be honest about how The Village haslanded and why we land there.There are those who believe in
church m em bership who do not practice as we do form al church m em bership.I have great pastor friends.
All the guys I know in the UK don't do form alized m em bership.

Basically, their thing is, "Ifyou com e here, you're in." They'll just do church discipline on anybody.You're
like, "I don't even know ifI've decided to join here." It doesn't m atter."Repent." That's non-form alized
m em bership.There isnothing sinful or wrong about it.In fact, I believe the structure, obedience and
submission as well as protection and maturation can occur without a formalized membership process.
Here at The Village,we do formalized membership. Here's what that means.

That means we have a covenant member class. All we want to do in that class is put all our cards on the
table. W e don't want you to become a member and then two years from now go,"W e believe what?"If
you're thinking about it in an analogy,it's kind of like dating. W e're going to just be who we are on the first
date. W e're not going to try to pretty ourselves up at all;we're just going to lay it out on the table. "Here's
what we believe theologically. Here's how we operate philosophically."

W hat we're going to do for those of you who are sports people,is we're going to go,"This is our defense.
W e're running 3-4. This is our base defense. This is how you get involved. This is how we're structured. This
is what we believe. Here are the positions there are to play in the 3-4. That's our base package. Do you
want to know how disciples are made at The Village Church? This is how they're made. Do you want to
know what we believe about salvation? This is how we believe salvation works. Do you want to know what
we believe about the roles of men and women? This is what we believe. Do you want to know what we
believe about the Holy Spirit? Here's what we believe about the Holy Spirit."

W e're just going to lay it out there,and we're going to answer your questions. W e're going to give to you a
document we call our covenant. In that covenant,it's basically nothing added to the W ord of God. In fact,if
you wrung that thing out,it would just pour N ew Testament and O ld Testament all over the ground. It is
what is a church,what is covenant,what does the Bible command of elders,what does the Bible command
of members,and then how are those relationships going to interact here at The Village? After that class,
we're going to ask you to read through that covenant,and then one of our members will sit down and
basically interview.

It's not cool points;it's,"Are you really a believer,as best we can tell,and have you actually read through
the covenant? Do you actually understand what we believe? This in a very real way will protect the unity of
the church."At that point,they'll sign off,and you are a covenant member of The Village Church. Then
annually,we do a renewal. The reason we do that… O nce again,you have to hear my heart. The reason we
do covenant renewal is because we take very seriously God's command on us to shepherd you.

Do you know what came out of covenant renewal? Hundreds of phone calls came out of covenant renewal.
W e don't have to do that. W e take Hebrews 13 seriously. M an,I'm on the phone with some of you. In fact,it
was really fun for me,because Igot to call some of you Ihave never met. "This is M att.""M att who?""M att
Chandler.""N o,it's not.""N o,Iswear to you this is M att Chandler."Here's what we learned in some of
those questions. Some of us were just very uninformed,and some of us had a lot of legitimate concerns
we got to hear and address.
It'sa legitim ate feedback loop m eantto help usshepherd you and care foryou.W e'lldo itagain thisnext
fall.You'llstartto hearitagain in early fall,and we'lldo itagain.W e're going to do itevery yearso Ican
know,we can know who we're leading,and you can be rem inded ofthe covenantyou've entered into with
the people ofThe Village Church and the elders ofThe Village Church.That'show we do ithere.Is that
betterthan having no form alized m em bership process? Ithink so fordozensofreasonsthatIdon'tthink
necessarily m atterhere.

W hatyou gethanded in ourcovenantisa teaching docum ent.Pick itup any tim e you want,and you'llknow
how to hold m e accountable.Do you wantto know whetherornotI'm doing m y job,whetherornotthe
eldersare doing theirjob? It's in the covenant.W e didn'twrite you in;we wrote usin.W e're m em bersfirst,
which iswhy I'm starting with m em bersbefore we teach on elders,because there is nothing thatisasked
ofm em bers thatis notalso asked ofelders.

It'ssim ply a teaching docum entso you m ightsee whatGod hasasked ofyou,whatGod hasasked ofus,
and whatGod hasasked ofthose who are eldershere.There are otherevidences.I'm trying notto go long
here.Acts2:37-47 is a num ericalrecord ofthose who have professed Christand been filled with the Holy
Spiritand acknowledged thatthe church was tracking itsgrowth there in 47.Laterin the book ofActs,you
see elections take place in orderto address a specific problem and accusation.

Rom ans16:1-16 appears to be an awareness ofwho a church m em beris,and then 1Tim othy 5:3-16 isa
program designed atthe church in Ephesus to m eetthe need ofwidows and whatthey m ustbe doing and
where they m ustbe to qualify forthatprogram there in the church.This isjustm ore evidence,butIthink
the big rocks are structure and discipline,how God plansto care forus.Letm e end ourtim e togetheragain
by justreading through the "one anothers." Ifthat'show we're going to interact,Ijustthink we can'thear
thisenough.

In the N ew Testam entalone.Love one another.Serve one another.Acceptone another.Strengthen one

another.Help one another.Encourage one another.Care forone another.Forgive one another.Subm itto
one another.Com m itto one another.Build trustwith one another.I'm hoping to do thatin thisserm on.
Build trustwith one another.Live in harm ony with one another.Confess to one another.Do notpass
judgm enton one another.Do notslanderone another.Instructone another.Grieve one another.
Adm onish one another.Spurone anotheron toward love and good deeds.

M eetwith one another.Agree with one another.Be concerned forone another.Be hum ble to one another
in love.Be com passionate to one another.Do notbe consum ed by one another.Isaid thislastweek.Ican't
say itenough.W e're going to disagree,butthere's a way thatas believersin Jesus Christ,we are to
disagree with one another. If we spend any time on the web at allon Christian blogs,you know we really
stink at this. W e don't devour one another. That's not what we do.

W hen we disagree,we disagree in a way that shows that we have been shown grace,that we've experienced
mercy,and as we have had that heaped upon us,we willdefinitely extend it to others. I have a hard time
trusting brothers who consume other brothers. Do not anger one another. Do not lie to one another. Do
not grumble to one another. Give preference to one another. Be at peace with one another. Sing to one
another. W e're about to do that here. Be of the same mind to one another. Comfort one another. Be kind to
one another. Live in peace with one another,and carry one another's burdens.

Again,covenantalnot contractual(I'm going to say this for the rest of the series),which means,"I'm not
demanding this of you. I am trying to be this for you,and if you would come that same way,we have a real
shot at something beautifulhere,but if you have come demanding this of others,I'm just going to put you
on the clock. It willonly be a matter of time untilyou move on to get in the same fight you get in here with
some other fools. I'm just inviting you in to fight with fools here,myself included.

Covenant means,"I'm going to,by the Holy Spirit's power,try to be this for you. If there is reciprocity,it will
be a lot easier. If there's not,it doesn't change. This is what God is asking for me." M e greeting,loving,
encouraging is about obedience to God as he floods my heart with love for you. I think that's going to make
it easier for you to be reciprocalin it where you're not loved,not greeted,not encouraged,not rebuked,not
corrected,not… " If allI ever gave was flowery sermons that didn't press on your heart,wouldn't you
eventually get bored of that? M aybe it's just me. I just eventually get bored of that.

I just know myself to know I'm not awesome,and if you're telling me I'm awesome,you're a liar. This is
good news,guys. Rest in your lack of awesomeness. Just snuggle up into the chest of God Almighty who
knows how weak and fragile you are. M ay we strive to be this kind of people to one another,and may the
power of the Holy Spirit,the Ghost empower these things here. Let's pray.

Father,I know there are some who are in a season where this is easy even delightfulto hear. For some of
us,that's not the season we're in. W here there are men and women who are battered and bruised in here,
Holy Spirit,willyou now do your work where something has been misheard or fear has crept in or the
Enemy has begun to lie. W ould you,as David cried out,break the jaw of our Enemy? W ould you give ears
to hear? M ight this be good news to all?

Help us be these kind of people. I pray that you would move us forward in obedience,that you would move
us forward in glad-heartedness to obey and submit,that you would continue to protect the hearts of the
elder board here,that they would continue to feelthe weight of Hebrews 13,they would continue to take
very seriously to shepherd the flock of God in this place.M ight we feel the weight of the seriousness of this
subject and give our hearts gladly to your com m ands.It's through your beautiful nam e Ipray,am en.